Reading for fun drops dramatically among teens, report says

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Reading among children is on the decline, with dramatically fewer teens and pre-adolescents reading even weekly, and many never picking up a book or magazine that's not assigned, according to a report released Sunday.

Various studies have looked at reading trends and achievement, but a report by San Francisco-based Common Sense Media examined changes over time that were revealed in seven surveys and tests by public and private groups. The authors compiled those surveys but did not do new research.

... In 1984, almost one-third of 17-year-olds read for fun almost every day; in 2012, the percentage had dropped to one-fifth. Those who never or hardly ever read for pleasure daily grew from about one-tenth to more than one-quarter. In fact, 45 percent of 17-year-olds said they read for pleasure only a few times a year. Surveys show that the decline in reading has accelerated in recent years.

... The study also noted the good-bad news from national tests, that reading comprehension among fourth- and eighth-graders has improved since 1992, yet remains dismally low. Just over one-third of fourth- and eighth-graders are proficient in reading. For 17-year-olds, scores have remained stagnant.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/my-town/ci_25742623/reading-fun-drops-dramatically-among-teens-report-says

[Ron Green]

1. The sad part of this is that in text there is context;

in context there's meaning.

The screen doesn't deliver the same experience as the book, in my opinion.

[defacto7]

2. I absolutely agree...

The whole function of reading has different pathways in the brain with personal connections the the material much more vivid.

It's sad and probably true what the article says but it's not the fact with my kinds. They eat devour books.. They also read their kindle here and there, but the book from the library rules here and it's their choice! I'm proud of that.

[Codeine]

5. I read several books a month on a Kindle,

and each read is as satisfying as the hundreds and hundreds of hard-copy books I've devoured in my lifetime. I've been a voracious reader since I was a small child and I find reading an e-reader to be no less edifying than a traditional book.

[Victor_c3]

10. I agree with that

I don't read that much, but I do read a respectable amount.

With the kindle I find I'm much more likely to look up a word that I don't know the meaning of than I would be if I were reading a traditional book. You just hold your finger on the word for two or three seconds and the definition pops right up on your screen. Too easy.

[blueamy66]

15. Too easy is correct....especially for children

Children would be better served if they had to look up a word in an actual dictionary.

[Victor_c3]

20. valid point

I didn't think about that.

"Too easy" isn't a bad thing for adults, but wouldn't be a good thing for kids in this case. I have to agree with you on that.

[blueamy66]

26. I remember, as a child, asking my Mother how to spell a world, and inevitably she would respond

with "Look it up Amy".

Ugh Mom!

[Aerows]

12. absolutely agree

I am and always have been a reader, and it doesn't matter if it is in a hard copy, on my phone or on my Kindle, it is all the same to me. It's damned convenient to have an entire library on my phone because it goes with me everywhere.

[MineralMan]

6. I'm not sure that's true.

And you haven't really provided any evidence of it. I am, and always have been, a voracious reader, with a lifetime average of a book a day, since 1950, when I began reading for myself.

Today, I read on the screen, either on my desktop or on one of the two Kindles I own. I've noticed no difference in my enjoyment and comprehension between reading on a device or holding a book or magazine in my hands. None.

I think it is a mistake to make assumptions about the media used in reading, especially when there are no solid data on which to base those assumptions.

I'm not seeing it. Instead, I think there are other reasons for the problem.

[blueamy66]

16. I agree that the screen doesn't offer the same experience as an actual book.

I love the way books smell. I love the way books feel. I love the way books look on bookshelves.

I can write notes in the margins. I can highlight certain important passages.

I love giving books as gifts to my nieces and nephews. You can't "wrap" an electronic book.

I realize "to each his/her own"...just my opinions.

[MineralMan]

17. Yes, I enjoy paper books, too, even old musty-smelling ones I buy

so I can have the content in old books that are long out of print.

However, my Kindle lets me create notes and highlight passages, too. It doesn't smell, though, and doesn't make my wrists tired during long reading sessions. It also gives me access, through gutenberg.org to a wide range of the old, obscure books that I find the most interesting. Books I can't get from the library or that I would have to pay very high prices to obtain.

Is the paper book dead? No, it's not, and its not moribund, either. I still have a few thousand volumes in my bookshelves, but I do find myself using books in data form more and more. I have access to more books than ever before, including new books by authors whose work will never appear in any bookshelf or even be printed on paper.

I like e-publishing. It has opened publishing up to many for whom publishing would never happen. I also like paper books. It's just that I find more and more of my reading being done on my e-ink Kindle. Right now, it has over 1000 books on it, and I delete most books when I finish reading them. It goes with me wherever I go, slipped into whatever I'm carrying or in a coat pocket. Nifty thing, having a library in my pocket that I can use any time. Truly.

[blueamy66]

24. Thanks for that post.

Very interesting about the old, obscure books. That isn't my cup of tea, but I understand why someone that was interested in them would really like the Kindle.

Sounds like you have the best of both worlds.

[Ron Green]

18. I can't supply a study to support it, but my view is that electronically-published material does not

lead to the same kind of learning as does a book. I note that in this thread all the long-time "voracious readers" began with books, and now enjoy their hypertext and other out-of-location experiences. The jury is still out on whether beginning readers, having never known the insular world of books (or newspapers and written letters, for that matter), will successfully acquire the skills needed to build their own context, outside of that provided by the commercial interests controlling the Internet.

[MineralMan]

19. I don't think so. We all started with books, because

there were no devices on which we could read books and other materials. It wasn't a choice on our parts. That was the medium that was available. Books, magazines, newspapers, etc. As for commercial interests controlling the Internet, commercial interests controlled those other media at the time we were reading them.

Today, anyone can publish for e-readers. No publisher is needed. What that means is that unpopular works are now available at little or no cost to owners of e-readers, where they were not in the days of paper-only publication. I'm the author of three books that saw publication in the traditional press. I'm also working on a couple of others that will be published as e-books. My current projects would never see publication on paper, now, and wouldn't have in the past, either.

The freedom available to writers today is unheard of. Anyone can create a website, blog, or other Internet outlet, free of any cost. Anyone can write a book and publish it at no cost, as well. The restrictions are essentially gone. An e-book can be sold on Amazon or some other e-publisher. They don't charge anything to publish it there, and the writer will be paid if copies are sold. It can also be distributed via email, on a website, or in any other way desired by the author.

The freedom to read today is far greater, using our devices, than ever before. Further, you can read unpopular viewpoints easily, freely, and at will.

I have to disagree with your characterization, I'm afraid. We read books, because we had nothing else. Now, we do.

[Ron Green]

23. I hope you're right, if you're saying that people's skills to form and understand context will grow,

or at least survive, in the new environment. But I'm not talking about the freedom of writers, or of readers for that matter. I'm talking about the responsibility, the requirement, that the reader understand what a writer has written and an editor and publisher have made available. The new "marketplace of ideas," an unfettered world of phrases and images, is a marvelous place for you and me, who've learned to read and write and cogitate under the system of text. I just hope that the kids of the OP will find it as useful when they're farther along.

[yeoman6987]

27. I wonder if they are counting the Nook and other readers

Sometimes these surveys get too much in the weeds.....have you read a book in the last year? Well teens being the way they are may say, "no I haven't". When in reality they may have read a few on the nook.

[DemocraticWing]

3. Kids read so much online.

Not all of it is useful, perhaps not any of it. But anyway they're reading all the time, and unfortunately have little time to read things more substantive than a news article. Might not be a bad idea to tell your kids to put away the computer for a couple hours and pick up a book.

[Neoma]

11. That was the great thing about being grounded.

Yay! Time to read books now.

[blueamy66]

4. Went for my jog last week....saw 2 kids waiting for the bus....

I saw the little girl holding what I thought was a tablet and was a bit sad. But as I got closer, I saw that she was reading a book. And as the bus drove up, she walked to the bus, still reading that book.

I thought to myself, "Atta girl"!

[Starry Messenger]

7. I had three seniors tell me they hadn't read a book since 5th grade.

They do everything off sparknotes. This is the generation that has more or less gone completely through NCLB from K-12.

[The2ndWheel]

8. Reading someone else book is like watching someone else play a sport

It's not everyone's cup of tea.

[Javaman]

9. Generally specking, the love of reading is usually passed down via the parents...

Not only were my parents veracious readers, they encouraged me, my brother and sisters to read.

They made sure that we were read to at night and as we grew older, had us pick a book that interested us and would have us read it to them.

My very first book that I read to my dad was Tom Sawyer followed up by The Invisible Man.

They encouraged any kind of reading and in the 1950's and 1960's were probably only of a few parents that were okay with me and my siblings reading comic books.

Roll models and mentoring is everything.

I don't know what I would do if I could no longer read books. I do listen to a number of them on my ipod, but I must read every day, I feel I cheat myself out of something really personal if I don't read a book even for a little bit each day.

[quinnox]

13. yep, a lot of kids hate reading these days

they look at it like its a chore, like homework. It is their loss, they are missing out big time.

[MineralMan]

14. I remember a lot of kids who hated reading

way back in the 1950s when I started school. There were readers and non-readers. Probably there always have been. I'm not sure that has changed, really, much at all.

[redqueen]

21. Both my kids love reading

but between extracurricular activities (gotta spruce up those college applications!), AP courses, and reading assignments, they have precious little time for other activities. If schools want kids to read for pleasure, then fewer reading/annotation assignments would help.

[grilled onions]

22. As A Kid I Loved Reading

But as I grew (in the teen years) I drifted away. As soon as I started working I joined several book clubs and started back into reading. Now that I have hit sixty plus a couple I wanted to read but found some books too large for my hands and the print too small. The Kindle has become my friend. I have enlarged the print and I can read without disturbing my spouse. I wish kids would get away from texting and get back into reading.
Does anyone think that the shorthand spelling they use in texting etc make it more difficult for kids to read since the kids may not understand the actual spelling of words?

[karadax]

25. Introduce more kids to comic books.

My wife and I just had a similar conversation about what drives kids to read. For myself it was comic books. They were cheap, didn't have many words and had awesome artwork to spark the imagination. Gotta keep reading fun.

Free Comic Book Day occurs on the first Saturday every May at most local comic shops. I would love to see more schools work with the stores to encourage fun healthy reading habits for youngsters.

I also agree with the sentiment that parents have a huge role in setting the tone with reading. If kids see you do it they will want to mimic.

[mike_c]

28. this is terribly sad, IMO....

The most successful students are often those with strong reading habits. This does not bode well for American education.